Unlocking the many 'voices' of subject English: A historical and theoretical analysis of English curricular change in Newfoundland and Labrador

This thesis is a critical and effective historical analysis of subject English in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador. Another recent massive policy shift in subject English in Newfoundland and Labrador, and the fact that nothing had been put in print regarding this topic, provided the impetus for an investigation of the ways in which curriculum comes to be construed and often justified around competing conceptions of epistemology. Through a problematized notion of knowledge, I analyzed senior English curricular documents from three distinct periods in the province's history, providing a glimpse of a pre, post and present day Confederation English classroom. Through a close, "symptomatic reading" of the patterns and import of carefully selected episodes within subject English's history in the province, I was able to cast new light on the interactions between past epistemological and pedagogical discourses and consider how these voices might still speak to us today.